Gymnasium

(γυμνάσιον, A.V. "place of exercise''), a large unroofed building for the purpose of athletic exercises, consisting usually of different compartments, or a set of separate buildings conjoined, each of which was set apart to some special sport, as the Sphaeristerion for playing at ball, the Palaestra for wrestling and the exercises of the pancratium, etc. (Smith, Dict. of Class. Antiquities, s.v.). This was almost exclusively a Greek institution, and there was hardly a Greek town of-any size that had not its gymnasium. To the Jews it was unknown until the Hellenizing party introduced it in the age of the Maccabees (1 Macc. 1:14). Jason, the Hellenizing high-priest, caused one to be erected at Jerusalem (2 Macc. 4:12 sq,). This innovation was viewed with much displeasure by the strict party among the Jews. Whether Herod the Great, when he introduced the theatre and amplitheatre, restored the gymnasium, does not appear, but the probability is that he did (Josephus, Ant. 15:8, 1; compare War, i, 21, 11). SEE GAMES.